3feet of front valance, both front inner wings (you could tickle the passengers feet and change a fuse or touch the wiper motor through the inner wings!!) one foot of left rear sill and 2 beams that needed patching. it was just a bit too much on a car that i haven't made costs on, and would become a big welding headache in the future years... sooo, i traded it in for this; a '89 360GL that has been involed in a lorry accident while it was parked.
story is that it hit the lh side wing with it's loading bay pushing the car sideways where a lightpost and a concrete block were waiting.; the accident's damage: both front wings, right door(the strengthening beam was pushed against the inner sheet of the door!!), bonnet, 1,5 foot dent in the RH sill and LH side inner wing. other than that 4 small pieces of patching on the sills and front valance; technically OK and a B200E wich has done 120.000km, it was really doable and a nice oppurtunity to pick up my sheetmetal skills as i have zero experience on this.
here's a quick summary of what happened in the period of 18march till now in the weekends:
i started with repairing the damage not too much pics of everything but here are some; Tom might remember this location
the dent in the RH sill was so large that i decided to cut it out and wel in a replacement piece.
LH inner wing was a lot of work... this was the damage.
here welded;
here's the RH wing that came off,
surprisingly the replacement wing fitted no problem,
the RH door didn't fit but after some reconstructive work on the door hinges (very big hammer!) it did like a glove, brilliant!
and a good tip if you start too enthousiastic on welding the car's floor; remove the carpet or you'll end up with fire!
i was very lucky that it was coffeebreak and i saw some flickering orange in the headlining wich raised the alarmbells (2 cups of water put it out) if it was later we probably have ended up losing the car and maybe even the garage...
MOT came up after a lot of work, went trough after replacing 2 broken bulbs, 2 rear tyres and the wiper blades so i could drive the car to it's new home
i do need to push the LH inner wing out on the top, it's bent in a bit with the accident
the replacement wings and doors have the wrong trim (some of them even have striping), so i took everything off and removed the glue residu with a caramel disk
then it's first wash
and i went through my parts stash for some bits n bobs to put on later; this + yellow front foglights should be nice
one of my own custom stainless steel strutbraces put on
then the very much needed maintenance..
new radiator
replaced the oil seals and cambelt+tensioner
removed + blanked the Pulsair system as one of the pipes was rotten
exhaust manifold gaskets were leaking;
also blocked off the EGR with a hydraulic nipple.
on with the intake manifold..
ultrasonic cleaning the injectors;
on of it's O-rings was broken, that explained the fuel smell.
adjusted the idle control etc while the manifold was off and put the injectors back with new O-rings
blocked off the EGR nipple with a bolt + Loctite 542, the whole EGR valve etc was removed and cleaned the crankcase ventilation box
started to look like something..
this was the heater resistance:
obviously i put a resistorpack back in instead of the fuse
replaced both fuel filters, this is what the fuel looks like coming frome the engine bay filter..
done!
how it runs after the service:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07wWnLqhz60
also replaced the torquetube clamp bolts
on with the interior!
even found a factory fault
obviously replaced it with a new connector.
took out the CV loom of a spare dash loom i had lying around;
adjusted the valves;
replaced front + rear bumper, front grill to a GLT model and redid the trailer connector, then also replaced the roofgutter and front+rear window trimming from faded chrome to black plastic trimming.
after paint cleaning + wax treatment and with 15`wheels coming from my old red 340:
looks good in the rain.
the 343 is sleeping indoors now, i have 2 storage spaces (1 for the 343 + sheetmetal and 1 for all the other parts)
rear lighting issues with the earth strip, solved by replacing the earth strip for wiring.
new engine, B230F
will be nothing fancy, just putting it in. it'll even run on the stock 360 LE. just have to put on another cyl head and a side-dizzy oil pump axle, fresh paint + cambelt and swap it; should give a few extra pony's and some extra torque. also started building a B230F+T for the 343 atm, will be using the sump+oil pump etc from this B200E once it's out.
this was this afternoon after putting on a snowcap, still need to put the GL trimming back on. also took linseed oil over the bumpers the past week.
oh yeah, it drives really good too
like it a lot, was finally something else as a daily to the last 340 cvt's. it took some time from my dad to start enjoying it but he likes it too. it's not nearly as good handling or quick as the 340Turbo (wich still drives btw, will get on with that soon as a hella lot more mods are coming!!!) but still it's fun and a good highway cruizer.
